In today's highly dynamic and competitive world, the manufacturing scenario has undergone a rapid change in the last two decades by implementing Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) either through joint ventures or by licensing agreements. This has put a lot of difficulties at all levels to improve the utilization level of AMTs of the organizations. The objective of this paper is to understand the hurdles/barriers and provides the research methodology for improving the utilization level of AMTs in Northern India manufacturing industry for achieving manufacturing success.

Today's manufacturing environment is characterized by intensified competition, rapid market changes, increased product variety and short product life cycles. Fast and dramatic changes in customer expectations, competition and technology are creating an increasingly uncertain environment. In order to be competitive, manufacturing enterprises need to respond rapidly to product demand changes. Today, most organizations share access to the same manufacturing processes, systems etc. The competition is therefore no longer based on manufacturing technology as such, but rather on how well the organization manages the technology relative to its customers. Management of technology is defined as "managing technology means to use new technology to create competitive advantage" (Khurana, 2007).

The purpose of this study is to explore the hurdles/barriers that affect the utilization level of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies (AMTs) in Indian manufacturing industry for achieving manufacturing success. For achieving this objective, a framework for enhancing the utilization level of AMTs in Northern India manufacturing industry is proposed in the subsequent sections.

The word `Technology' has been derived from the Greek word `Techno-logia'Techno means an art or skill and `Logia' means science or study (Rao, 1996). Thus, technology means systematic treatment of art or skill. Different people view technology from different angles; it carries different meanings to different people in different situations. Technology is defined as, "the practical knowledge, know-how, skill and artifacts that can be used to develop a new product or service and a new production/delivery system" (Moriarity, 1990). Also technology is the knowledge, tools, equipment and work techniques used by an organization in delivering its products or services (Khurana, 2007). According to Zhao and Reisman (1992), "Technology denotes the broad area of purposive application of the contents of the physical life and behavioral sciences. It comprises the entire notion of technics as well as the medical, agricultural and other fields with their total hardware and software contents."

Operations Management Journal, Research Methodology, Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, Manufacturing Industries, Information Technology, Organizational Structures, Production System, Skill Redundancy, Decisions Making Processes, Technological Innovation, Material Requirement Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, Computer Numerical Control.